What are Essential Oils?

Essential Oils are the aromatic liquids that lie within many shrubs, flowers, trees, roots, bushes, and seeds. Can you just go get them out of a plant in your yard? Not exactly… They are typically extracted through a steam distillation process, but another common method is compression.

Are they the same as vegetable and olive oils? Not at all! Vegetable oils are obtained from the fatty parts of a plant like the nuts, seeds, or kernels. Essential oils are usually derived from the roots, bark, flowers, leaves, resin, etc. Vegetable oils are greasy and can go rancid over time. Young Living’s essential oils do not go rancid or expire – sweet! In the essential oils world, we refer to the kitchen oils (olive, coconut, avocado, grape seed, etc.) as carrier oils, since they are often used to dilute the potency of therapeutic grade essential oils when applying to your skin.​What do they smell like? Essential oils should smell exactly like the plant they come from – nothing more, nothing less. Often times companies will add things like vanillin to make them smell sweeter. Do your oils smell like a plant or a dessert? If it says 100% pure but it smells sweet, chances are something else has been added. This means that the medicinal properties are either decreased or nonexistent.

Disclaimer: ​We are not medical professionals, and the information found at The Drop Academy is not in any way meant to take the place of professional medical advice. It is for educational purposes based on opinions and facts that we have found to be true in our own experience and with research we have gleaned from books and online. We are not diagnosing, treating or prescribing. If you have any health conditions, are on any medications, are being seen by a medical professional for any reason, are elderly, pregnant, nursing, have babies or young children or animals please consult your physician or veterinarian as well before starting any new wellness regime. The statements contained on The Drop Academy have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.